Drakensang - The Dark Eye - RPC 2007 Trailer & More

April 26th, 2007, 13:54

dtp / Anaconda Games made the Drakensang trailer from the RPC 2007 available. Drakensang - The Dark Eye is a classic party based RPG based upon Germany&acute;s most successfull P&P RPG The Dark Eye. The 6 minute long video shows in-game footage and a remarkably enthusiastic interview with Radon Labs co-founder and creative director Bernd Beyreuther. Unfortunately the whole thing is only in German.

I'm too lazy to translate the whole Interview… to be honest it's not that interesting anyway. A few details that might be interesting are:

They'll try to keep most of the pnp rules of The Dark Eye, since they believe it's a balanced system that actually works - so why change anything.

You'll controll a party of up to four characters.

Combat will be strategic and turn based.

Obviously not everything that Bernd Beyreuther is telling us here is true - I had a look at the forums where it says that combat will be pausable realtime with the rule system in the back being turn based…

Full control. You can also temporarily have one, two henchman (i.e. saving missions)

Combat will be strategic and turn based.

Obviously not everything that Bernd Beyreuther is telling us here is true - I had a look at the forums where it says that combat will be pausable realtime with the rule system in the back being turn based…

It's real-time with pause. The trailer was meant for not-so-gamer audience, RPC is a roleplay convention, not really for pc gamers. People, who don't know the difference between realtime with pause and pure realtime.

I found the trailer non-inspiring and disinteresting, sorry. The sight of all four characters walking along the very same route presumes the lack of an adequate pathfinding routine, which I deem essential in such games. I used to have such high hopes for this title, which have just been crushed to the ground, courtesy of this video clip.

The party was sort of in lockstep, but what I noticed was the following camera, which was really disorienting for me in NWN2. The atmosphere looked good without being graphically insane, though
It's really hard to tell much from this small a bit of footage.

Originally Posted by r3dshift
I found the trailer non-inspiring and disinteresting, sorry. The sight of all four characters walking along the very same route presumes the lack of an adequate pathfinding routine, which I deem essential in such games. I used to have such high hopes for this title, which have just been crushed to the ground, courtesy of this video clip.

You do realize that the game is almost a full year away from release, donīt you ?!

I had a chip on my shoulder about this game when my hopes were dashed of an RoA4. But it is one of the few big budget fancy games I am looking foward to and will purchase on day one (day one of a digital download option). This is far more up my alley than any other big budget fancy game being made, even if it isn't the game I wished it to be.

I think this game will do well in the lng run, like a Troika game. I hope it does well enough to turn into a series and spur more games like it. If I can't get what I want, at least I can get sort of close.

Originally Posted by r3dshift
I do, but still: why release such a bland trailer? Seems like they've got a lot of work to do.

They do.

I dunno, in spite of everything, I'm still excited about this game. DSA is still a good setting based on a great system, and while some of their design concepts are a bit odd, the developers strike me as an intelligent lot.

Originally Posted by r3dshift
I do, but still: why release such a bland trailer? Seems like they've got a lot of work to do.

The reason for showing something at this exhibition was mentioned in the interview: DSA has an installed base of 7 Mio players.
Certainly most of them are no hardcore computer/video gamers. Making them aware in advance to watch out for a PC game connected to their hobby is good business practice.
This also explains why the interview repeatedly stresses how close they want to stay to the source material.

I don&#180;t think there&#180;s anything to worry about. Radon Labs&#180; two older full price games both received good reviews. Now they have their own technology (-> saves budget), an official license of a proven RPG system, the 4 original DSA story authors, and a new trainee responsible for fact checking and ruleset consistency. IMHO the chances are slim that Drakensang won&#180;t be at least "pretty good".